Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM where
we instantly improve the lives for Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care, so that you can make informed decisions, have PEACE OF MIND, real power, real control and so that you can influence decision making fast, even if you’re not a doctor or a nurse in Intensive Care!
This is another episode of “YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED“ and in last week’s episode I answered another question from our readers and the question last week was
My husband had open heart surgery with complications! He’s not “waking up”, he needs 100% of oxygen and now he’s
bleeding from the stomach, I’m so scared, help! (PART 4)
You can check out last week’s episode by clicking on the link here.
In this week’s episode of “YOUR QUESTIONS
ANSWERED“, I want to answer another question from our readers that we get quite frequently and the question this week is
What are the chances of survival for a person in an induced
coma?
This is another great question and it’s a question that we get quite frequently from families in Intensive Care.
The short answer to this question is “it depends”.
On the one hand, many critically ill Patients in Intensive Care in an induced coma who survive this ordeal will never have come any closer to death during
their entire lifetime, on the other hand, the vast majority of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care will survive!
Let’s first look at some figures and most statistics in Intensive Care suggest that about 6-10% of Patients in Intensive Care don’t leave Intensive Care alive.
Or to put it in different terms, about 90-94% of Intensive Care Patients do survive their stay in Intensive Care
and leave Intensive Care alive.
It means the vast majority of Patients in Intensive Care are leaving Intensive Care alive.
First of all, let’s quickly look at why critically ill Patients in Intensive Care need to get into an induced coma in the first place.
As a rule of thumb, anybody who is requiring mechanical ventilation and a breathing tube will also require an induced coma.
The simple reason for that is that mechanical ventilation and a breathing tube are so
uncomfortable that it can’t be tolerated without being induced into a coma.
You can find out more about induced coma in general here
Patients therefore have to be sedated with medications to put them to sleep so that they can tolerate the mechanical ventilation and the breathing tube.
You can find the most common clinical pictures in Intensive Care when Patients have to be sedated, induced into a coma and then go on a ventilator and a breathing tube here
https://intensivecarehotline.com/clinical-pictures/
Let’s look at this from a more practical point of view and let’s illustrate this with some practical examples so that you can understand how this might look like in reality!
Your 80 year old Dad has been admitted to Intensive Care with a severe Pneumonia and he needs a breathing tube due to his oxygen levels dropping significantly. He wouldn’t be able to be kept alive without starting to ventilate him as his lungs are just too sick.
He therefore needed to be sedated and induced into a coma
so he can tolerate the breathing tube and the ventilator.
This will do two things for him
- It will give his lungs the ability to rest and heal, as well as give his lungs more oxygen and more pressure so that the lungs can deal with the Pneumonia
- It will give his body a rest and he has more time to deal with this severe critical
illness
It is always difficult to put an exact time frame on how long your Dad will be in the induced coma and how long he will need the breathing tube and the ventilator and it will also be hard to say if he will survive or not.
From that perspective, Intensive Care is an inexact science.
You can certainly improve the chances of
getting your Dad out of Intensive Care alive by doing your own research, by asking the right questions and by not buying into the negativity and the “doom and gloom” of the Intensive Care team.
Related article/video:
It also helps if you get professional help through my counselling, consulting and advocacy service here at INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM
Chances of survival generally speaking also increase if your Dad was otherwise fit and healthy before he went into Intensive Care.
Many families in Intensive Care who ask this question “What are the chances of survival for a person in an induced
coma?” also ask this question because they often feel the pressure from the Intensive Care team to agree to a “withdrawal of treatment” and/or to NFR (Not for resuscitation) or DNR (Do not resuscitate) orders.
Intensive Care teams are very quick in being negative and they are
very quick in painting “doom and gloom” pictures for your critically ill loved one.
If you buy into the negativity of the Intensive Care team you are doomed and you will fall into the category of 99% of the families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care who make no informed decisions, who have no peace of mind, no control, no power and no influence.
Therefore if you ask the Intensive
Care team about “What are the chances of survival for a person in an induced coma?” you’ll probably get a negative answer and you’ll get an answer that’s driven by what’s happening “BEHIND THE SCENES” in Intensive Care!
You therefore have to read between the lines at all times.
Recommended:
You may also want to know, why I should be the one telling you about all of this? In case you are wondering, after nearly 20 years Intensive Care Nursing in three different countries, where I literally worked with thousands of critically ill Patients and their families and where I also worked as a Nurse Unit Manager in Intensive Care for over 5 years I can assure that I’ve seen enough Patients in Intensive
Care surviving and induced coma.
Furthermore, now in my professional counselling, consulting and advocacy service here at INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM I speak to families in Intensive Care all over the world every day!
I know their questions, I know their frustrations and I know how to get results for them!
Let’s look at another real-world example here.
Let’s say your 53 year old husband was in a car accident and sustained significant fractures on his chest, his HIP, his legs and he also sustained a significant head and brain injury.
He’s now been in an induced coma for over two weeks.
First, he had very high intracranial brain pressures (ICP’s) that had be surgically managed as well as medically managed.
Once your husband’s intracranial brain pressures were under control after he had brain surgery, a craniectomy (=partial removal of the skull)
as well as medical management with Mannitol and Thiopentone he had all his other fractures in his HIP and legs fixed.
Your husband also required significant amounts of inotropes/vasopressors because he developed an infection
that caused his blood pressure to drop as well as him needing some antibiotics.
With all this extensive surgical treatment and the need for Anaesthetics as well as deep sedation and opiates (=pain killers) for his significant head and brain trauma, he’s still sedated and he’s now got a tracheostomy.
Your husband has been very critically ill and especially with his high intracranial brain pressures (ICP’s) he was close to not surviving this ordeal.
Your husband has now been in an induced coma for three weeks and the sedation has just come off now.
He’s not “waking up” yet and in order to come out of the induced coma after the multi-trauma and the head and brain injury, he will need time.
It’s often time that Intensive Care teams are not prepared to invest in their Patients because an Intensive Care bed is a
precious, expensive, scarce and “in-demand” resource that other potentially more profitable Patients want.
That’s why it’s so important that you do your own research and that’s why it’s so important that you do whatever it takes to challenge the negative positioning of the Intensive Care team.
Your job is to position your critically ill loved one’s diagnosis, prognosis, as well as their care
and their treatment!
Especially when it comes to multi-trauma and severe head and brain injuries, critically ill Patients will need time, patience, nurturing and a positive environment.
How do you feel Intensive Care teams are going in providing a positive, nurturing and patient environment when you feel pressured from day one to agree to “pull the plug”?
That’s the reality and most families come to us at INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM when they feel the pressure from Intensive Care teams to agree to a “withdrawal of treatment” or an NFR (Not for resuscitation) or “DNR” (Do not resuscitate) orders.
Recommended:
You see the reality is that most critically ill Patients in Intensive Care survive an induced coma, if they are given the time.
It’s often time the Intensive Care team is not prepared to
give!
They also believe that they are the only ones who know what’s “in the best interest” for your critically ill loved one!
It’s bullocks! The fact of the matter is that you know your critically ill loved one best and you are their best advocate!
If I was you, I would not “buy” into the negativity and the “doom and gloom” of the Intensive Care team and if I was you I would buy as much
time as possible if you can.
Don’t go into any meetings with the Intensive Care team if you are unprepared. A family meeting in Intensive Care is the ultimate power display for the Intensive Care team and they know what to say, they know how to say , they know when to say it and they also know what not to say.
Recommended:
That’s how they manage their beds in Intensive Care and that’s how they manage families in Intensive Care!
99% of the families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care blindly follow the lead of the Intensive Care and that lead is almost always a negative one.
99% of the families of critically ill Patients
in Intensive Care don’t know what they are doing and they don’t know how to make informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power and influence!
Once your critically ill loved one has survived the induced coma your next step is to look at how long it’ll take them to “wake up” after the induced coma.
Go and check it out here
You’re on the right track. Do never give up and get as
much information as you can possibly get before agreeing to anything or before believing any of the negativity and the “doom and gloom” of the Intensive Care team.
